Left to Kelly Tomblin alone, she probably would not be leaving JPS next month. For even though her original intention was to serve as president and CEO of the power company for two years, Tomblin admits that she fell in love with Jamaica when she arrived here in 2012. Plus, she found that there was a lot of work to be done.

However, Tomblin had made a promise to her two sons — George, who is now 19, and Harrison, now 12 — that when it came time for them to start attending university and high school, respectively, they would move back to the United States.That promise was more influenced by the fact that Harrison plays lacrosse, baseball, ice hockey and American football — sports that are included in extra-curricular activities at schools in the USA, unlike in Jamaica.George, on the other hand, fitted in perfectly as he plays tennis and football. It helped too that he “is a traditional student”, meaning that he’s brilliant at academics, while Harrison, Tomblin explained, “is not a test-taker”, albeit a bright and talented child, and as such needs “to go to a different kind of school”.In fact, Tomblin told the

Jamaica Observer last week that had she not enrolled Harrison at Reach Academy in Kingston, a school that caters to the varying learning needs of each student, she would have had to return to the US in her first year here.“Definitely they have a school that looks at the individual and works with the individual… this school has done a great job. I owe them all the love in the world,” Tomblin said, pointing out that both boys returned to the US last year, “so I’ve been away from them for a year and it’s not working”.But even as the maternal tug is strong, Tomblin said an equally compelling reason for her departure is that she’s satisfied that she and her team at Jamaica Public Service Company have achieved what they wanted to during her tenure.“So many of my team are just unbelievably awesome, so when I weigh who needs who right now, my team, I think, used to need me more; they don’t need me so much any more,” Tomblin explained.“If you think about the work we’ve done together, our vision, mission and values are strong. We say it like the pledge of allegiance — that’s done. We’ve embedded the technology we wanted to embed, we’ve changed every system, we are on the road to having a smart grid, we’re doing fuel diversity, we have put together all the things that I wanted to put together, even though we have a lot more work to do,” she said.“I read Douglas Orane’s book and he said, a good leader knows when it’s time to pass the baton, and I just think that after five years it is time, and my son needs me more than my team needs me. But it’s hard; you do fall in love with Jamaica,” Tomblin added.After completing her last day at JPS on July 7 Tomblin will board a plane the following day and, on July 10, will take up her new job as CEO at INTREN Inc, an Illinois-based company that builds and maintains infrastructure for the energy industry.A news release on INTREN’s website states that Tomblin will replace founder and CEO Loretta Rosenmayer, who will become chair of the board.“This evolution comes at an extraordinary time for INTREN,” the release quotes Rosenmayer. “Our momentum is strong, and our management team and employees have built an exceptional company that is one of the most trusted and respected in the industry. I’m confident Kelly is ideally positioned for her new role to continue our growth.”Tomblin, the company said, was chosen in a competitive selection process from a strong field of candidates. “She is a highly impressive and respected executive known for her ability to build diverse, meaningful cultures in a collaborative leadership style. As a recipient of the prestigious 2016 Platt’s Global Energy CEO of the Year award, Kelly topped an impressive list of finalists leading companies in the United States and around the world,” the release added.“The reason I wanted to go to this company is that they have a culture similar to what we have created here [at JPS],” Tomblin told the

Observer. “When I accepted the job they sent me cookies made by people with disabilities that they support and it said we stand for stewardship.”Asked what she will miss most about Jamaica when she leaves, Tomblin responded quickly: “My team. My people. We’ve laughed together, we’ve cried together, we’ve had fights, just like any family. So it’s gonna be really hard, but there comes a time when you know that the next piece of evolution in JPS is in someone else’s hands, and as I said, my son needs me more than my team now.”She added: “I just think that in some ways I’m a distraction sometimes, because they’re doing very good work, but often I will be in the headline. You just feel that it’s time; you know that old song, I’ll always love you but if I stayed I would just get in your way?”